George Harrison's guitars! - Rosewood Telecaster & some other favorites!
 

Being a little melancholy I started watching You Tube videos of the Beatles and one of my favorite is George playing a Rosewood Telecaster in "Let It Be"..

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfK3u485lGs

I wish Fender would reissue this beautiful guitar! I would probably rush out and get one!

I don't know why I started thinking about George's guitars. He was one of my biggest influences growing up and I would spend hours studying my Beatle tomes looking at pictures of George's guitars. Who can forget the image of George with his 1957 6128 Black Duo Jet which he resurrected for that famous cover shot for "Cloud Nine" looking so cool with his mirror shades!

And George's '64 Gibson SG that figured so prominently in probably the first music videos ever made for "Paperback Writer, Rain & Lady Madonna".

Then George's famous '57 Les Paul..the cherry red one that he played on the classic "Revolution" video. I read somewhere that that guitar was a gift from Eric Clapton to George. George used "Lucy" extensively on the White Album & Abbey Road sessions.

"Rocky"...George's legendary '61 Strat that he repainted in psychedelic colors! It can be seen prominently in "Magical Mystery Tour"!

One of my favorite Beatles' videos is the clip from "A Hard Day's Night" where George is playing a "Ramirez Classical"...I remember finding this out years later and always wondering what brand guitar he was playing. I think on some of the closeup shots of the guitar you can somewhat see the label inside the soundhole..

One of the films that impacted me tremendously as a young teen was "the Concert for Bangladesh" and in it I remember George in a white suit looking so cool playing an Olympic White Strat. I read somewhere that was a Strat that Eric Clapton had also given as a gift to Harrison and still exists in his collection. It, according to what I read was one of 6 Strats that Eric picked up in a shop in Nashville..with some of the 6 Strats Clapton picked up that day he constructed "Blackie" his most famous guitar! When I bought my Olympic White Strat back in 1990 at "Rockin' Robin" guitars in Houston, Texas I was thinking of George in that white suit...

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1323042139

Here is a great picture of George with some of his guitars...I'm not sure when this was taken but I thought this was so cool:

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1323041102

Yes..I am an overzealous Beatles fan!

Great Post!!! I to am a big Beatles fan and was greatly saddened with the passing of George Harrison. I think he was a better guitar player than he gets credit for! And what an awesome show of him among his guitars!

Thanx! Jim

And let's not forget the Gretsch Country Gent, no longer around because it fell off the back of a car. Between George and Chet, I've had a Jones for that guitar since I was a kid. Someday...

The recent documentary by Scorcese about Harrison was absolutely wonderful.

Without having direct access to HBO ( I subscribe to HuluPlus & NetFlix, and stream it) is there a way to see it?

Well, I've never been an electric guitar guy, so I could be mistaken, but I don't recall that ever being a production model for Fender. My understanding of it was that it was a prototype that Fender gave to Harrison, but it never went on sale to the general public.

The R&D luthiers at these large scale guitar manufacturers tend to build a lot more one-off prototypes that never go into production than most players realize - the prototypes get built essentially as talking points for the staff management meetings, where they get passed around and played and discussed and debated. Most never get to the next step of becoming part of the product line, simply because it costs money to tool up for something different, and to promote it to the public.

Particularly if they get displayed at trade shows like the NAMM show but don't generate enough interest.

So most guitar factories I've visited have got quite a few prototypes laying around. They often get given away or sold at a discount to performers and other friends of the company.

Anyway, if I'm wrong and that rosewood Telecaster DID go into production for a while, I'm sure someone with a better knowledge of the Fender product line will set me straight. But my impression is that it was a one-off.


Wade Hampton Miller

That one I've got to see! One of the most moving experiences was seeing the "Concert for George" and all the wonderful musicians that gathered to honor him! George was a humble man who had a deep love for the human race and his legacy of music will continue to inspire generations to come!

His "Concert for Bangladesh" will forever remain in my memory as a selfless dedication to helping those in need...

I believe you're correct about the Tele that George is playing in "Let It Be" being a prototype however I do believe the Rosewood Telecaster was added to the production line in 1969. They differed from George's slightly and large numbers were never produced and the line was discontinued in 1972. Fender Japan reissued it in the eighties and I read that occasionally the custom shop makes occasional runs.

I think it's a beautiful guitar and is iconic! The image of George playing it is so ingrained in pop culture. Even in Rockband you can see him playing it in "Get Back"!

Not sure if this has been mentioned before but the Grammy Museum here in L.A. is currently hosting a George Harrison exhibit:

http://www.grammymuseum.org/interior..._materialworld

Also, on the BeatGear forum there is a great thread with a bunch of pics from the exhibit:

http://www.beatgearcavern.com/forum/...hilit=harrison


I'm going to try and see it in the next few weeks.

Rob

Wade, I recall seeing a rosewood Tele in the Sweetwater catalog 3 or 4 years ago, so Fender makes runs of them from time to time.

FWIW, the late Delaney Bramlett's family has the original guitar (unless they've sold it), which was a gift from George to Delaney back in 1970-71 when George sat in with Eric Clapton and Delaney and Bonnie and Friends.

There used to be a really smokin' Japanese TV YouTube clip of George and this band playing Coming Home live somewhere in the UK, with Delaney playing the rosewood Tele. The clip was notable for the lineup, and for the superb playing. Notable, also, for how wired everyone looked!

PS: I checked to see if the clip of Coming Home was still up, and while the audio of the performance is still up, the video isn't - it just shows stills. This clip of Clapton singing I Don't Know Why has both the audio and video of the same performance with George, who can also be seen in the Poor Elijah clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEYC1...eature=related

itunes? i downloaded it from there and it is wonderful. a must see. it was so good i watched the whole thing (it is a long, long film) and started it straight over again. which, when you get it, i suspect you will too.

...and the duo jet has just been released as a signature. there are two types i think - a custom replica at a cost of loads & loads of money and signature at the slightly less cost of loads of money.

I will have to check it out!

Thanks! Much appreciated!

Nice! Great pictures!